Even though this story is 17 years old, these kinds of things
happen
every day. Only a few make it to the AP and the national
spotlight.
Worth reading to be reminded that sometimes squirrels and other
creatures supposedly "native" to an area have more
"legal" right to
be there than us humans do.
==========
Hermit of San Bruno Mountain Is Evicted
from the San Francisco Chronicle, May 16th 1987
by Michael McCabe
==========
After 10 years of diminishing solitude, the hermit of San Bruno
Mountain has been evicted from his woodsy shelter because park
officials don't consider him natural to the environment.
==========
Dwight, as he is known by hikers and environmentalists in the
area,
was kicked out of his homemade shelter Thursday and told not to
come
back.
==========
Eight park rangers and sheriff's officers from San Mateo County
swooped down on the site and confiscated most of his belongings
and
destroyed the camp site, Dwight said yesterday.
==========
"That's It, I'm getting out, no two ways about it."
said Dwight, 44,
who said his full name is Dwight Vernon Taylor.
==========
"I don't know what my next move is, but I know this is the
end. I'm
staying here on the mountain for a short time until they return
my
belongings and I figure things out."
==========
Dwight, a short, wiry Peninsula native with mischievous blue
eyes,
said he found a written warning on Wednesday from the San Mateo
County Parks and Recreation Department posted on his A-frame
shelter,
informing him that his campsite was illegal. He was given 24
hours to
vacate the premises.
==========
He had received a similar warning about a year ago, he said, but
it
was rescinded when hundreds of friends, and friends of friends,
wrote
letters to the county protesting the eviction. He hoped the
same
thing would happen again.
==========
This time someone from Brisbane apparently took umbrage at the
hermit's existence on the north side of San Bruno Mountain and
demanded action.
==========
"I received a public complaint about a week ago that this
hermit was
building a cistern on the side of the mountain, leveling off the
land," said David Cristy, director of parks and recreation
for San
Mateo County. "I decided it was time to have my rangers and
the
sheriff's department move in and return the area to its natural
setting."
==========
Dwight was ticketed for camping, building campfires, and
"mutilating"
the environment.
==========
"When I saw all those rangers and sheriff's men cutting down
tree
limbs to clear the way to haul my stuff away, I got myself very
peeved," Dwight said. "I sat down in silence for a
while and watched
them, not trusting myself to speak."
==========
Some environmentalists and friends of Dwight's are outraged by
the
eviction.
==========
"There is nothing unnatural about Dwight," said David
Schooley, 43,
founder of Bay Area Mountain Watch, a group interested in
protecting
the San Bruno Mountain area from development and other urban
threats. "He is a natural resource to the mountain."
==========
Schooley, who has visited Dwight off and on for eight years, said
Dwight is very friendly and sociable, and often takes children on
nature hikes along the mountainside. "Anyone who has spent
any time
at all on the mountain knows that Dwight has become a human
adjunct
to the mountain's healing powers," Schooley said. "It's
horrible
what's happened."
==========
Dwight said he used to teach music in junior high school until he
reached "burnout stage," and left for long hikes across
the country.
Soon, he said, he discovered he could not stand to live within
the
confines of a house, with its stale air and restrictions on night
star views.
==========
Gradually, he said, he found himself coming more and more to the
San
Bruno Mountain area, long before it became a park. He lives on
$30 a
month he gets in dividends from a money market fund. His diet is
primarily brown rice he buys in town. Otherwise, he forages
for "mountain greens," watercress, miners lettuce and
mustard greens.
==========
He says he has made himself immune to the ubiquitous poison oak
by
eating its leaves at regular intervals.
==========
"I'm a hermit, because some people were just born to be
hermits,"
Dwight said, sitting on the side of the moutain yesterday.
"But I
have always loved visitors. It's like I have loved people too
much
and that has gotten me in trouble. I've always craved
solitude--it
gives you an evenness of mood that is not available outside. Time
just floats by, nonverbally.
==========
"The destruction that came yesterday may have been a
blessing. I was
getting too many visitors; two or three a week. Now maybe I'll be
forced back into greater solitude again."
==========
END OF ARTICLE
==========
sail4free

a. A concept is a result of conceptualization,
which is the process of separating and naming.
b. Conceptualization is a process learned in early
childhood. The infant does not conceptualize because its
intellect is undeveloped. In contrast, the sage has a
well-developed intellect and conceptualizes but sees that
separation is an illusion.
c. Without conceptualization, there are no objects (e.g.,
in dreamless sleep, under anesthesia, or in samadhi) because, by
definition, objects are always separate from each other.
d. Reality is not a concept. Rather, It is absence of
separation. Therefore, It is also absence of concepts and
objects.
e. Conceptualization appears to fragment Reality (which is
also Wholeness) into separate objects so that Reality no longer
seems to be whole. However, Reality remains unchanged by
it.

2. What is meant by true and untrue concepts?

a. A belief is a concept to which the mind is
strongly attached.
b. A belief that cannot be verified by direct seeing is
always subject to attack by a counter- belief. Therefore,
it must be constantly reinforced by repetition of the
belief. Blind, unexamined, purposeful adoption of a belief
is called faith.
c. Since Reality is absence of separation, It cannot be
perceived. Therefore, concepts cannot describe Reality (but
they can be true, see g and h below).
d. Example: A material object by definition is
separate from other material objects. Therefore, material
objects are not real. The belief that material objects are
real is constantly reinforced by materialistic culture, and can
be sustained only by a failure to see the distinction between
objects and Reality.
e. Although concepts cannot describe Reality, they can
point to Reality.
f. A pointer is an invitation to see directly the
distinction between an object and Reality.
g. If a concept asserts or implies the reality of any
object, it is untrue. If it negates the reality of an
object, it is true (but not a description of Reality). A
true concept can be a useful pointer to Reality.
h. Example: The concept that material objects are not
real is true, and is a pointer to Reality.

3. What is the world (the universe)?

a. The world (the universe) is the collection of
objects consisting of the body-mind and all other objects. The
world appears to exist in time and space.
b. However, time and space are nothing but concepts.
They are not real.
c. Time is the concept of change. Since all objects
change, all objects are temporal concepts.
d. Space is the concept of extension (size and
shape). Since all objects are extended in space, all
objects are spatial concepts.

4. What are polar, or dual, pairs of concepts?

a. Conceptualization always results in inseparable
pairs of concepts (polar, or dual, pairs) because every concept
has an opposite.
b . Reality is apparently split into polar (dual) pairs by
conceptualization. However, no concept is real since
Reality cannot be split.
c. The result of apparently splitting Reality into polar
pairs of concepts is called duality.
d. The two concepts of a pair are always inseparable
because the merger of the opposites will cancel the pair.
e. Example: I/not-I is a polar pair of
concepts. If the I and not-I merge, no concept
remains.

5. What is Awareness?

a. Awareness is what is aware of the world.
b. Awareness is self-evident because you are aware and you
know that you are aware. It does not change and It has no
extension. Therefore, Awareness is not a concept or object.
c. The terms Awareness and Reality
are equivalent conceptual pointers.
d. All objects appear in Awareness and are Its contents.

6. What are You?

a. You are not a concept or object. Clear
seeing shows that You are not the body-mind because You are what
is aware of the body-mind.
b. Therefore, You are Awareness.
c. The world and the body-mind appear in You--You do not
appear in the world.

7. What is existence?

a. An object formed by conceptualization plus
identification is said to exist.
b. Without identification, there is no objectit is
just a concept.
c. No object is real because Reality is absence of
separation. Therefore, no object exists.
d. The apparent existence of objects is called dualism (not
duality--compare with duality in 4c above).
e. The sage, being only Awareness and knowing only
Awareness, sees no separation, thus he/she sees concepts but no
objects, i.e., duality but not dualism.

8. What is the I-object?

a. The I-object is an assumed entity that results
from identification of Awareness, which is real, with the
I-concept, which is unreal. The I-object seems to exist,
but clear seeing shows that it does not.
b. You are not an object and You do not exist--You are
Reality (Awareness).

9. What is it that makes other objects seem to
exist?

a. Whenever the I-object appears to arise, the
non-I object also appears to arise. Then the dualism of
desire-for/fear-of the non-I object appears to arise also.
b. Thus, the non-I object seems real.
c. Further conceptualization then splits the apparent non-I
object into a multitude of objects, and fear/desire makes them
also seem real.

10. What is the personal sense of doership and
responsibility?

a. The illusory I-object carries with it the illusory
personal sense of doership and responsibility.
b. However, since the I-object does not exist, there is no
doer, no thinker, no chooser, and no observer.
c. Therefore, You can do nothing and You are responsible
for nothing. Thus, if something is supposed to happen, it
will. If not, it wont.

11. If there is no doer, how do things
happen?

a. Doership is a concept that assumes that both
the doer and causality exist (I can cause this to happen).
b. However, since there is no doer, causality is nothing
but a concept and is not real.
c. Since all objects are nothing but concepts and do not
exist, everything that appears to happen is also nothing but a
concept and does not exist.
d. Everything that appears to happen happens causelessly
(spontaneously).
e. Even if objects existed, it is easily seen that no
putative cause could ever be isolated from the rest of the
universe, so it could never act alone. Therefore, the
entire universe would have to be the cause.
f. Because the I-object and causality are nothing but
concepts, so is free will. It too does not exist.
g. Like all other objects, God is nothing but a concept,
and does not exist.

12. What is suffering?

a. Suffering is the desire/fear dualism (i.e.,
where there is desire, there is fear, and vice versa) plus all
the other emotions that derive from desire/fear.
b. Suffering results from identification of Awareness with
the concept of I as doer, making the I-entity seem
real. With the illusory I-entity comes the sense of
personal doership and responsibility, plus the illusory existence
of all other objects.
c. Identification makes all objects seem real, and
desirable/fearful.

13. What is awakening (enlightenment)?

a. Awakening is disidentification of Awareness
from the I-concept and therefore also from the sense of personal
doership and responsibility.
b. With awakening comes the awareness that there is no
person or entity to do anything, and there never has been any
person or entity.
c. Consequently, there are also no other objects, and there
never have been any other objects.
d. Since there is no I-object, there is no person that can
desire or fear. Also, since there are no other objects,
there is nothing to desire or to fear. Thus, there is no
suffering.
e. With awakening also comes the awareness that Reality has
never been affected by either conceptualization or
identification.

14. What can you do to awaken?

a. Since direct seeing shows that there is no doer, there
is nothing that you can do to awaken, and therefore you have no
responsibility for it.
b. Since awakening transcends time, and all practices
apparently occur in time, no practice can bring about awakening.

15. Does this mean that there is no hope for the
sufferer?

a. Definitely not. There are many practices
that will lead to less suffering. However, like all other
actions, they are never done by a doer since there is no
doer. Therefore, you cannot do them, but if they are
supposed to happen, they will. If not, they wont.
b. Any practice of direct seeing can reveal Reality.
c. Example: To verify that there is no I-object, look
inward for it and see that there is none. See also that
everything that happens, including all thoughts and feelings,
happens spontaneously, so there is no doer and there is no
responsibility. Therefore, You cannot be affected and You cannot
suffer.
d. Example: To verify that no object exists, look and
see that, if there is no separation or naming, there is no
object. Then, look and see that nothing in the world can
ever bring you peace. Finally, see that nothing can affect
You who are pure Awareness and pure Peace.
e. Resistance is a thought, feeling, or emotion that always
resists something, be it a thought, feeling, sensation,
perception, or action.
f. The I-object is formed when there is identification with
resistance.
g. Disidentification from resistance, and therefore from
the I-object, occurs when there is awareness of it.
h. The more you are aware of the resistance, the more you
will transcend it, and the less you will suffer.

16. What is the ultimate practice?

a. The ultimate practice is to go inward.
b. The more time you spend inward, the more you will
realize your true nature, and the better you will feel.

Together with the Mandala
database of groups and centres, this web application enables
a relevant and up-to-date summary of international sangha
activity: events, individuals and centres  for
all sentient beings.

Upwards of 20,000 people are expected to flock to the Cambria
Heights grave of Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson
today, the 10th anniversary of his death.
Jews and non-Jews alike - from across the country and all over
the world - will wait for hours and endure long lines for the
opportunity to visit the rebbe's grave site, considered a holy
place imbued with spirituality.

"People come here and feel an energy that emanates from the
grave. They feel there's a spirituality here," said Rabbi
Abba Refson, director of Ohel Chabad Lubavitch Center, which
adjoins the grave site. "Some people come out weeping and
emotional, and others come out inspired and uplifted, but
everyone comes out somewhat impacted by standing in the presence
of the rebbe." Read the entire article